Something is flying right in front of the ISS
And earthlings made it
A special bag with tools, which was lost by the NASA crew and has been floating in space since then, is surprisingly well visible even with just a telescope, writes the server The Space.
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NASA briefcase flies through space
The stars, planets, nebulae and galaxies that are usually the target of astronomers’ observations were recently surprisingly joined by a toolbox that floats undisturbed in space around the Earth. A special bag slipped from the hands of NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, who were performing an ascent into free space outside the International Space Station (ISS).
According to the portal EarthSky the briefcase orbits just ahead of the ISS and its visual brightness is magnitude 6. That means it’s only slightly less bright than the ice giant Uranus. As a result, the bag – officially known as the crew lock bag – is somewhat too faint to be visible to the naked eye, but astronomy enthusiasts can spot it with just a telescope.
An ordinary telescope is enough
If you want to see it with your own eyes, first find out when the International Space Station will fly over where you live (this can be done for example this page). You should observe the briefcase two to four minutes before the ISS flyby.
Harvard Center for Astrophysics (CfA) astronomer Jonathan McDowell revealed that it circles Earth in an orbit measuring roughly 415 by 416 kilometers. And he added that it also received its own categorization in the system of cataloging artificial objects in orbit of the US Space Force with the official designation 58229 / 1998-067WC.
However, it is definitely not the strangest object that has found itself in Earth’s orbit. That honor goes to the humble spatula. The late NASA astronaut Piers Sellers lost a well-known tool when he was using it to spread heat shield repair material during space shuttle Discovery’s STS-121 flight in 2006.
Preview photo source: NASA, source: EarthSky, Space
2023-11-12 10:33:43
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